I'm a Hilltop girl, Linda Phillips, the great granddaughter of four generations of builders of houses on the Hilltop

• Archiving the family history for relatives and others in the Hilltop
• Providing a small piece of history for historical societies and academics

In . . . '88, '89 it was a big drug problem in the area . . . and . . . um it was really, really bad. So I just wanted to say, I was the first person in the Hilltop to do a drug march against the drug problem around here.

• Acknowledging an on-going problem
• Acknowledging his own part and the J. Ashburn Jr. Youth Center's role in addressing the drug problem.

[About the Hilltop Branch of the Columbus Metropolitan Libraries] I feel we had an impact on the community here. You consider the socio-economic make up of the Hilltop, where it is basically blue-collar or no-collar, and we are lifting peoples' standards of life.

• Making a case for the library's importance to upper administrators and state budget planners.
• Announcing valuable services to the Hilltop community, and more.

We had moved quite a lot...I think we ate at Howard Johnson's. I was sitting on a stool saying, "Man, Columbus Ohio. I wish I could be in Wyoming." I wanted to be a cowgirl because I was like 7 years old.

• Documenting family history and the dreams of a young girl.

[Claustrophobic in Wyoming] My friend from Columbus came to get me in a U-haul truck. We drove back to Ohio and when I crossed that border . . . "Oh my god, I am never leaving Ohio again." It was just so good to be home (1977).

• Documenting a personal history with Ohio and the Hilltop and the reality of a young woman in the 1970s.

I still hold the records for most tackles and stuff like that. Just regular football records, nothing amazing. Well the numbers are amazing . . . [laughs]. But then that all went down hill when I got into a couple of wrecks.

• Documenting the good times in high school and foreshadowing the hard times ahead.

I lived on Wheatland Avenue. Whenever Jesse Owens would come down the street, he would gather up the kids and say, "Let's go over to the ball field."

• Documenting local legends and what racial discrimination was like for his mother and the community.

Greenlawn was a little scary. It was very, very quiet there, and if you walked far enough there was a pond, and I remember that they had a sign that said, "Don't abuse the ducks!" And I was always worried about duck abusers being in the cemetery.

• Describing personal involvement with an important landmark in the Hilltop.

What we are doing. We are doing a community outreach, and it's called a backyard revival.

• Documenting an informal spiritual community open to all, but primarily for those with past drug problems.

I work here at the Hilltop library. I'm the coordinator of the Homework Help Center.

• Documenting memories that make the Hilltop their home.

The Hilltop drew me here in 2001. Yes, drew me. I had recently sold my house on the south side of Columbus. And through the twisting of life and people, found myself with no place to live. Well people this in not the way I roll . . .

• Relating an unusually positive attitude and approach to the Hilltop's abundant and abandoned giant parking lots and big-box stores.

The 1913 flood was important. People moved up here [to Hilltop] to get away from the low lands and the possibility of having to live through another flood.

• Documenting an important moment in the Hilltop's early history, a moment that helped determine it's relationship to the city of Columbus.

It took almost a year before they connected the bridges. There were, I forget, five or six bridges downtown. They had condemned this one. It was the only one that made it through the flood.

• Documenting important events that shaped the relationship between Columbus and the Hilltop.

[Hilltop leaders] were so concerned about the community, that they would not allow the establishment of anything on a segregated basis.

• Documenting the efforts of a black community to get out of the segregation era.

The moral of the story is this. Now that I work at the Center [J. Ashburn Jr. Youth Center], there are some kids going the wrong way. So I do everything I know to stop them from going the wrong way. I try everything I know (though some go wrong anyway).

• A heart-breaking story that illustrates the struggles in the Hilltop today.

It was a community within a community on one street. It was a village. And so often we forget that our communities were really villages that raised its children.

• Documenting that in difficult times, the work of the local community is essential to raising its young people.

[At 5 years old] they shipped me off to my grandmother's house in Waverly, Ohio, and there was a one-room school house about 150 yards from where they lived. It was a township school and at that time every township was responsible for K-8 schools.

• Documenting a devotion to education after the depression.

I have an older brother. We lived in the neighborhood as children with the combination of a lot of boys. I was the only girl for many, many years. And so, I was the tag-along. But it was beautiful, very beautiful.

• Archiving family histories and why there is such a commitment to the Hilltop.

Some people say the Hilltop is feisty, too many bosses and not enough workers. That is why I chose the Bean Dinner, because it represents unity.

• Documenting the best of a local community spirit.
• Keeping civil war history alive.

Listen, appreciate, and smile

• Documenting community organizations

I like it here. I like the Hilltop. I'm happy here. It reminds me of a suburb of London.

• Illustrating the diverse backgrounds of Hilltop residents.

I was just another kid with no place to go. We heard that you could use the gym. So a bunch of kids went up on Wednesdays when they had bible study. My life started, uh, I started hanging with the wrong crowd.

• Documenting the importance of "The Rev," churches, and youth centers to youth who have lost their way.

That Sunday the Rev [Reverend J. Ashburn Jr.] asked me to stand up. He knew I needed some money and a job. The Rev introduced me as a friend . . . "If anyone in the congregation has some work, this man will do it for next to nothing" . . . He instilled in me, for the first time in my life at 21, a work ethic.

• Documenting how "The Rev" helped shape lives.

I come into the world struggling to breath. So lets talk about the Hilltop . . . It's been hard for a lot of people here on the Hilltop. I have found my niche. This place just called to me. God wanted me to have this beautiful home.

• Illustrating how faith and a government policy helped benefit a Hilltop resident.